GameCentral takes the logic of Recettear to its logical extreme and imagines a world where all the weird conventions of video games are taken literally…

What are ya buyin’?

The thing we love about Recettear is the way it takes an absurd idea and, by virtue of taking it seriously, makes it seem even sillier. The idea of an item shop in a video game makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and exploring the mechanics of how such a store would actually work only makes it seem even more so.Why would a shopkeeper not give you a sword if you were going to then save him from a terrible death with it? Even if he didn’t want to give it away why wouldn’t you just take it for the greater good? Then again why do demonic monsters drop cash and leather boots that always fit? Where do you put all this stuff when your hero is clearly wearing nothing but a loincloth?Video games rarely make any sense and in almost all cases we’re very glad of it.As mentioned in the review the humour in Recettear comes from a very similar source to Paper Mario. By viewing a fantastical world through an unusually mundane lens the absurdities seem even more extreme – and help inspire two of gaming’s best comedies.Of course Japanese role-players aren’t exactly known for their gritty realism but when you think of it very few of the best video games make any logical sense. How many times have you been the lone pilot or warrior sent to save your civilisation from total destruction? How many hundreds of people have you killed in a single gaming session and then had your character come across as a likeable and principled person in the next cut scene? How often have your wounds been magically healed by standing still in the same place for a few seconds?These are all well accepted conventions in video games and yet when examined in only passing detail they’re clearly absurd. They’re certainly not limited to more fantastical games either, not when you consider the complete lack of concern something like Call Of Duty: Black Ops has for anything from consistent narrative to the impact on your knees from jumping 20 feet down a high rise tenement.We accept all these patently unrealistic concepts because they serve the gameplay and either remove a tedious aspect of reality or create an entertaining alternative. Nobody cares that they don’t make sense as long as the effect they have on the game is a positive one.That said it’s hard not to notice that video games are becoming ever more obsessed with realism and simulation. Gran Turismo 5 may be one of the most successful titles of the season but it barely counts as a video game. Being obsessed with realism isn’t necessary a problem but when that comes at the price of accessibility to the ordinary player or the inclusion of any kind of proper structure or gameplay hook it does begin to seem like a step too far.This week Codemasters suggested to Edge magazine that making a game set in an ongoing war was, not “appropriate and I don’t think it’s tasteful”. This from the creative director of super realistic soldier sim Operation Flashpoint: Red River. Realistic in certain ways, but clearly – and unlike Medal Of Honor – it seems to know when to stop.The best video games, whether they take place in some harrowing real world setting or a cartoonish fantasy world, always know exactly how much inspiration to take from reality, how much from other media such as films, and how much from the developer’s imagination.The amount of influence from these three sources varies enormously but the real magic is creating a suspension of belief and then managing not to break it. Video games are all about setting their own specific rules and then letting you have as much fun as possible taking them to their limit. But if these are exactly the same rules (of physics, gravity, social mores and so on) as the real world you’re inevitably going to be left with a pretty boring game.But picking and choosing your own definitions of reality is what makes video games such a uniquely entertaining and rewarding medium. It’s not really a case of having too much realism or not enough, just of getting an appropriate balance.